Pete Droge - Necktie Second [2LP]

2025 Reissue. Necktie Second is finally getting its first vinyl pressing three decades late, and the deluxe edition sweetens the wait with two outtakes and five stripped down rerecordings of the songs people actually remember.

Pete Droge released Necktie Second in 1994 on Rick Rubin's American Recordings, with Brendan O'Brien producing, the same ear behind Pearl Jam and Stone Temple Pilots records, which let it sound like the moment without sounding like grunge. It worked, the album charted at radio and picked up serious press, and sent Droge on a year and a half of touring that included Neil Young's Bridge School Benefit, a slot opening for Tom Petty, and a night on Letterman. Its biggest afterlife came later and sideways, when If You Don't Love Me landed in Dumb and Dumber and quietly kept finding listeners who had no idea the movie was doing them a favor.

Northern Bound Train and Hampton Inn Room 306 still sound like a guy who could write a hook without trying too hard, jangly in a way that never quite matched the era's flannel. Chris Bellman's new mastering at Bernie Grundman, cut from the half inch tapes, finally gives it room to breathe, and the deluxe bonus tracks strip five favorites down to their bones.

Droge is back, chronic fatigue behind him, new music coming.